Enterprise Architects works with the Charity Commission for England and Wales to deliver new Digital Services within new Digital Service Environment

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1 Enterprise Architects works with the Charity Commission for England and Wales to deliver new Digital Services within new Digital Service Environment March 2017 The Charity Commission of England and Wales (CCEW) has initiated a transition programme to become a digital organisation to enable charities and the public to interact with them online. This transformation has a delivery roadmap which goes through to The existing Charity Commission Digital Services and Integration environment placed severe limitations on the commission and how it could interact with the public and charities, and how it could automate processes. This led to increased costs and reduced efficiency. The Charity Commission for England and Wales is the non-ministerial government department that regulates registered charities in England and Wales. CCEW has a diverse user base ranging from tiny charities through to large corporate charities with varying levels of digital skills, members of the public and other government departments. CCEW has approximately 600 internal system users. CCEW regulates approximately 165,000 registered charities with a combined gross income of other over 45 billion. Objectives The objective of the change programme is to move all external interactions to digital by default services, replacing their existing manual processes. In addition, the programme seeks to modernise internal systems, replacing them were necessary to improve the efficiency of CCEW s staff. Core Requirements EAL were initially bought in, reporting to the CIO, to develop an Enterprise Architecture for the commission that specifically addressed the provision of digital services and integration with legacy systems. Page 1

2 Core Requirements (continued) At a high level the requirements for the Digital Platform which the Enterprise Architecture had to meet where: A single digital platform encompassing and presenting all Charity Commission web facing services; Supports delivery of a unified modern responsive user experience that can be delivered across desktop, tablet and mobile device types; Able to be easily developed and deployed, requiring a minimum of programming; Readily maintainable and extensible for future need; Able to provide a security model that will enable front-to-back real-time transactions; Able to manage detailed identity concepts; Able to be easily administered from a single console; Able to provide monitoring and reporting on all activity; Able to support such areas as community interactions, social media, blogs, Knowledge Management, etc; Open-source by preference; Cost effective At high level the requirements for the Digital Platform which the Enterprise Architecture had to meet where: A generalised real-time integration environment; Able to natively connect to a wide variety of other protocols and platforms including Microsoft Dynamics CRM; Ability to configure target integrations easily and quickly; Able to be easily developed and deployed, requiring a minimum of programming; Readily maintainable and extensible for future need; Able to provide a security model that will enable front-to-back real-time transactions; Able to be easily administered from a single console; Able to provide monitoring and reporting on all activity; Open-source by preference; Cost effective. EAL where then asked to perform a Proof of Concept utilising the technologies recommended within the Enterprise Architecture. After a successful PoC EAL were asked to deliver, in conjunction with NTT Data, the first phase of the new Digital Services including environmental set-up. Page 2

3 Scope of Work 1. Enterprise Architecture Produce a new Enterprise Architecture catering for new Digital Services, including appropriate security, front-to-back integration, and incorporation of legacy systems. 2. Proof of Concept Deliver a working Proof of Concept for Digital Services. A working instance of the Name Change Digital Service that allows a Charity to change its Main Name or add / remove / modify any of its working names. The PoC utilised all the core technologies recommended within the Enterprise Architecture. Integration to legacy systems was included within the PoC. 3. Physical Environment Design Produce a design for the physical environment needed to deliver the new Digital Services and Architecture as per the Enterprise Architecture. This included the mechanism for development / test / training environments and associated replication. 4. Phase 1 Digital Services Deliver, in conjunction with NTT Data, the first phase Digital Services within a new Digital Services environment. The new digital services within phase 1 covered: Name Change (Main and Working); Governing Document Amendments; and Governing Document upload. Within this delivery NTT Data where responsible for: Development within MS Dynamics CRM; and Legacy SQL*Server development. EAL where responsible for: overall solution design; data design; Set-up and installation design of Liferay, Mule and JBoss BRMS; new digital service facia (within Liferay); new digital service integration (within Mule); new digital service business rules (within JBoss BRMS); integration to legacy authentication and authorisation; and integration to legacy document management solution. Page 3

4 Solution Overview 1. Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Architecture produced with focus on Integration and the delivery of Digital Services. Roadmap and delivery plan produced for a transformation to the Enterprise Architecture and the delivery of Digital Services. Product Selection for core technologies. This resulted in the selection of: o Liferay for user interaction; o Mulesoft for integration and service orchestration; o Redhat JBoss BRMS for business rules management; and o Forgerock for Identity Management and security. 2. Proof of Concept A four-week Proof of Concept was undertaken to prove the viability of the selected product set for use at the commission. A mixture of EAL and commission staff were involved in the PoC. The PoC successfully proved the viable use of the selected products at the commission; The Charity Name Change Digital Service was developed within the PoC. The PoC showed radical simplification of the integration environment. The PoC enabled, for the first time at the commission, real time read and update against master data 3. Physical Environment Design EAL produced a physical environment design for the commission, with a staged delivery to ensure the lowest cost profile. The design made use of Amazon Web Service (AWS) cloud hosting to reduce time to delivery and the costs of non-live environments. The design allows for expansion of capability as and when required 4. Phase 1 Digital Services EAL in conjunction with NTT Data and the commission personnel undertook the delivery of the Phase 1 Digital Services Name Change and Governing Document Amendments. This delivery is still in progress, and progresses to schedule. Page 4

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15 Benefits 1. Enterprise Architecture Prior to utilising EAL CCEW had tasked another organisation to produce an Enterprise Architecture and this organisation had failed at a significant cost in both time and money to CCEW. EAL produced the architecture rapidly, on time and on budget. For the first time CCEW had a map for how their technology transformation would be achieved. The Enterprise Architecture resolved a number of long running internal debates about what technology could be used within CCEW s budget. The Enterprise Architecture s extensive use of open source technologies ensured that solution delivered using the architecture would be cost effective. 2. Proof of Concept The Proof of Concept definitively proved to CCEW that their selected technologies would work and would deliver a solution that was acceptable to the commission. The rapid delivery of the PoC (4 weeks start to finish) proved to CCEW that Agile software delivery could deliver quality solutions quickly and inexpensively within their environments. 3. Physical Environment Design and Implementation The use of cloud based platforms (AWS) enabled the delivery of environments rapidly at low cost. EAL delivered the Development, Pre-Production and Production environments. Configuration of cloud based environments, particularly non-live environments means that they are only paid for when being used, reducing the cost of ownership to CCEW. 4. Phase 1 Digital Services Note: This phase is in progress so further benefits will be clarified as the phase completes. Delivery of new Digital Services at low cost enables CCEW to meet the budgetary constraints placed on it by central government. Delivery on time and on budget gives CCEW confidence in the affordability and viability of its roadmap. Delivery of the first new Digital Services. CCEW s internal teams have benefited from working with EAL and have gained significant experience in Agile delivery Wrapping of legacy services enabled legacy systems to play a fundamental role in the new Digital Services; extending their usable life and therefore reducing the overall cost of delivering new IT EAL s approach to performing design and delivery and sharing all working documentation with the client has resulted on strong knowledge of the solution within CCEW teams Customer Feedback Feedback from CCEW was extremely positive. EAL has been asked to present a proposal for the next phase of Digital Service delivery both with NTT Data and independently. This is a 2 year framework as the ongoing delivery partner. Page 7

16 Related Services EA Consultancy EA Methodology & Framework (TOGAF) EA Project Initiation & Mobilisation EA Capability Assessment EA Governance & Planning Function EA Content Development Business Architecture Data Architecture Application Architecture Technical Architecture Information Security Architecture Solution Architecture Page 8